On the run in the beautiful island
Tips
Make time for running
May 26th
THE biggest obstacle to running among workers holding regular hours is the seeming lack of time for the sport.
“I want to run to stay fit but I’m too busy with work. I barely even have time for my family,” an acquaintance told me a couple of months ago when our conversation inevitably turned to the fastest growing sport in the country.
GO OUT THE DOOR AND RUN! “Consistency requires discipline,” Bob Glover and Shelly–Lynn Florence Glover say in The Competitive Runner’s Handbook, “Force yourself out the door.” (FROM THE FLICKR ACCOUNT OF INDUSTRY IS VIRTUE)Bob Glover and Shelly–Lynn Florence Glover have an emphatic advice in The Competitive Runner’s Handbook, “Consistency requires discipline. Force yourself out the door.”
Dr. Raymund “Reel Runner” Bontol is more blunt, “MAKE TIME!”
Cebu Maternity Hospital obstetrics resident Dr. Cecillie Milan goes on a 24-hour duty every three days.
Yet she makes it a point to run at least an hour three times a week.
She ran 21 kilometers in The Great Lapu-Lapu Run and in the Mandaue City race earlier this month before reporting for 24-hour hospital duty.
How to measure running routes using online tools
May 19th
“WAS that really 10 kilometers?” the girl in Nike LunarLites asked a male runner trying to catch his breath, “it felt like it wouldn’t end.”
The girl ran about 11 kilometers in what seemed to be her first 10K.
In the absence of a local certification body, you just take organizers’ word that their race routes really are the distances that they announce these to be.
MEASURING ROUTES WITH GOOGLE MAPS. Google Maps allows you to draw a line on its street, satellite and terrain maps to measure distances. CLICK ON PHOTO ABOVE TO VIEW LARGER IMAGE.
Running together can strengthen a couple’s relationship: Yong
May 15th
Dr. Potenciano “Yong” Larrazabal III started running four years ago to deal with work stress. The successful eye surgeon worked daily from early morning to late in the evening—a schedule he described as very stressful.
“Mamatay ta ani ug sayo,” he told runners in the Sun.Star Cebu newsroom last night.
He started playing basketball until he injured one of his fingers. That spurred him to take up another sport—running.
RUNNING COUPLE. Max Limpag (left) briefs runners on the route of the 10th Friday Night Run from the Sun.Star Cebu office to the BTC and IT Park. At right are running couple Dr. Yong Larrazabal and Donna Cruz-Larrazabal. CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE. (PHOTOGRAPHED BY MARLEN D. LIMPAG)Since then, the doctor has run 11 full marathons or 42-kilometer races and countless races in shorter distances. He has run a full marathon monthly since December.
Larrazabal also helped spur the current running boom in Cebu with his annual University Run and monthly Run for Sight series, which he organized when there were still very few running events in Cebu. For that, he was awarded by the Sportswriters’ Association of Cebu.
Larrazabal was the speaker in last night’s ungo run, a weekly Friday night run from the Sun.Star Cebu office to the Banilad Town Center and the IT Park.
Dailymile now has Garmin GPS watch support
Mar 20th
Social training log dailymile has started rolling out its support for Garmin devices and can now retrieve total distance, time and map coordinates from your Forerunner GPS devices.
Dailymile is a website that serves as training log for runners, cyclists and triathletes. What differentiates it from sites like Garmin Connect is that it has a social networking component. It allows you to connect with other runners, cyclists or triathletes. You can view your workouts as well as that of your contacts and people near your location in a Twitter-like stream of entries.
MY DAILYMILE PROFILE PAGE. Dailymile is a cool social training log for runners, cyclists and triathletes. It now supports both Nike+ and Garmin devices. CLICK TO ENLARGE.I used the site for a while in July but stopped visiting it when I discovered Garmin Connect. The site supported Nike+ but didn’t work with the Garmin Forerunner. Since I use a Forerunner 305 to track my runs, I had to manually enter records in dailymile and it was tedious. Without Garmin support, I didn’t have the incentive to continue maintaining my dailymile account. But for so long, the site indicated that Garmin support was “coming soon” so I didn’t delete my account.
Triathlete champ to hold free clinic on optimal running technique in Cebu
Feb 26th
Three-time Philippine National Triathlon champion Arland Macasieb will be conducting a free clinic entitled “Optimal Running Technique” on March 5 and 6 at the 2nd level of the Active Zone in Ayala Center Cebu.
The clinic is sponsored by Newton Running, Runnr Academy and Ayala Center Cebu.
Macasieb is an exercise physiologist and holds a masters degree on exercise sciences from the Montclair State University. He was the Philippine National Triathlon chapion in 2001, 2005 and 2006. He is also a 6-time Ironman finisher.
Google Wave a great tool for organizing group runs
Nov 3rd
When Google announced a new communication and collaboration platform in May called Google Wave, people immediately signed up to be waitlisted for invitations to the beta or test version of the platform.
Google Wave is e-mail, instant messaging, wiki and collaboration platform combined. It’s been described as what e-mail would have looked like if it were invented today.
Planning your long run, measuring distances with Google Maps
Oct 29th
The long run, according to US Olympian Jeff Galloway, “will help you more than any other component of your training program.” It is an integral part of marathon and endurance training. But how do you plan and measure your long run route without having to go out and use an odometer, pedometer or global positioning system (GPS) device?
It’s easy. Use Google Maps.
PLANNING, MEASURING LONG RUN ROUTE. Google Maps allows you to plan ahead and measure your running routes. Above is the route I planned for our two-city long run this Sunday, Nov. 1. Click on photo to view larger image.Google Maps offers two tools that allow you to trace a route on a map, satellite image or a composite of the two, and then measure its distance. To use the tool, log into Google Maps using your GMail account and then click on My Maps and then choose Browse Directory.
You will then be presented with several add-ons to your Google Maps account. You can either pick Distance Measurement Tool or Area and Distance Calculator. I’ve long been using Area and Distance Calculator but I recently tested Distance Measurement Tool and found it to be better. Click on the Add it to Maps button below the tool area.
When running in the CCSC, protect your belongings, use the courtesy booth
Oct 21st
It’s a common sight at the Cebu City Sports Center (CCSC). Anywhere you look, you’d see bags placed on the ground or hanging from railings surrounding the track oval. This is risky. Many joggers have lost phones, wallets, money and other valuables they left in bags placed in the CCSC ground.
Last Oct. 14, two women jogging at the CCSC lost phones, a wallet containing P5,000, $300, and ATM cards and a backpack containing $10 Singaporean dollars and P3,100 cash, The Freeman reported. The two were able to recover the items because the CCSC guard stopped the suspected thief, Embie Santiago Arciaga.
